October 17, 2017 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITIís Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks.

OCLC partnered with the Internet Archive to make the Internet Archive’s 2.5 million digitized books available and discoverable through local libraries. OCLC will process the Internet Archive’s metadata on these titles and match them to existing records in WorldCat (or create a new record where needed). The WorldCat record will link back to the Internet Archive record, and the Internet Archive will link to the WorldCat site so users can easily find and/or borrow titles.

Cengage introduced OpenNow, a suite of digital OER products for general courses at higher education institutions. It costs $25 per student per course. The OER content—both new from Cengage and previously copyrighted by the company—is high-quality and curriculum-aligned, with assessments and analytics options. It is openly licensed (under CC-BY) so that instructors can use the content as is or work with an instructional design team at Cengage to develop course mapping and personalization, as well as additional courses.

Demco Software is offering a sneak peek of its Demco DiscoverMobile interface, which is the next generation of its Boopsie app. With a launch planned for December 2017, DiscoverMobile offers library information in an at-a-glance format, with simple steps for browsing collections, checking out titles, and registering for upcoming events on users’ smartphones. This new release also includes side navigation for highlighting frequently used library resources, a calendar-style view of events and programs, and account management for tracking holds and other information.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) released a statement on the U.S. and Israeli governments’ decisions to leave UNESCO, saying, in part:

IFLA, as a global network, is built on the basis that our institutions, and our activities, gain from discussion, and cooperation, across borders. We advance faster and in a more sustainable way towards these objectives—as institutions and as societies—when we do it together.

IFLA, as the global voice of libraries, therefore affirms the value of UNESCO as a global intergovernmental organisation in the field of education, science and culture, working with libraries to achieve our common goals.

Simon Inger Consulting (now Renew Publishing Consultants) and Tracy Gardner, its principal consultant for specialized competitor analysis and market research, are requesting participants for “How Readers Discover Content in Scholarly Publications 2018,” the fifth in their research project series that started in 2005. The previous effort focused on journal and book content discovery and had more than 40,000 respondents. The new project will have emphasis on measuring perceptions of Sci-Hub and ResearchGate in discovery and delivery of content as well as social media’s impact on discovery.

The American Psychological Association (APA) made a statement condemning the president’s “announcement that he is halting subsidy payments to insurers offering coverage under the Affordable Care Act,” which “threatens to significantly disrupt or end health coverage for millions of Americans by destabilizing the individual health insurance market. This decision will be particularly harmful to working families and individuals who will no longer be able to afford their premiums. …”

ByWater Solutions announced that its Koha Klassmates program is now active in 36 library schools across the U.S. Koha Klassmates provides free hosted Koha installations to library schools in North America to help teachers give students hands-on, real-world experience with the open source Koha ILS and cataloging.

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, is allowing its journal authors to share code through a partnership with the open platform Code Ocean—by integrating Code Ocean into its journal manuscript workflow. According to the press release, “Authors publishing journal articles advancing light-based technologies in the SPIE Digital Library now have the option to include links to the executable code.” Authors keep the copyright for the code and authorize the level of reuse licensing they want it to have. This will give published research more reproducibility and transparency.

D&B released the results of a report finding that “[m]ore U.S. businesses are reporting profits and increased hiring, with greater confidence in their ability to grow over the next 12 months; but demand for financing is trending down. …” In Q3 2017, 87% of respondents were extremely or somewhat confident that their business would grow, compared to 80% of respondents in Q3 2016. “In addition, businesses also are increasingly optimistic that revenue growth will occur in the next 12 months,” with 8.3% expecting positive revenues in Q3 2016 and 9.2% in Q3 2017. However, “[f]inancing for planned growth or expansion, including acquisitions not yet realized was down” from 66% in Q2 2017 to 62% in Q3 2017.

Thomson Reuters added content from Westlaw UK into Practical Law. According to the press release, “The closer integration bridges the gap between practical guidance and legal research and creates a more seamless experience between the two products.” Cases, legislation, and journals from Westlaw UK are now available in the legal knowledge environment of Practical Law. This gives mutual customers access to more than 500,000 cases and the latest changes in legislation, all from within Practical Law’s interface.

On Nov. 3, 2017, the Library of Congress (LC) and Boston public broadcaster WGBH will host a free symposium, Preserving Public Broadcasting at 50 Years, to celebrate the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. “During the symposium, panelists will examine the history of public broadcasting, the origins of its news and public affairs programming, the importance of preservation and the educational uses of public broadcasting programs for K-12 and college education, scholarship and adult education,” according to the press release.